[Suggestion] Topic Preview

[Barihawk]

At a number of phpBB2/3 forums I browse, there is a feature to hover over the title of a thread from the forum view that gives a brief preview of the opening lines of that thread in a balloon. Hopefully someone knows what I am talking about :P.

 

 

 

Yeah, I know it won't be a high priority for a while and I do not expect it to be. I just wanted to raise awareness of the feature in the hopes of garnering support and maybe an installation :D.

[D. V. Devnull]

Guess what, you have my support on this idea. A feature like that would be nifty, and like you, I'm patient enough to wait a long time for it. :thumbsup:

 

 

 

~D. V. Devnull

[Adam007]

Sounds like a good idea, and would save time just getting the general idea of a thread rather than loading each page.

[InkofDeath]

Sounds like a good idea, and would save time just getting the general idea of a thread rather than loading each page.

 

I agree, I would enjoy this, not having to read an extremely vague title, click on it, and find out it's a completely ridiculous thing, or something that's going to get locked. Bo a good time saver.

 

 

 

I'd say 180-240 words for the preview, and in the balloon it could count the total words in the topic, view topic starters profile...etc? Just to add some more usefulness to it.

[dsavi]

Just get the cooliris preview thing for Firefox, problem solved... Not.

 

 

 

Yeah, I support.

[jemathonical]

If it can be done, then I don't see why we can't have it :). I support.

[n_odie]

Would be a cool toggle option.

 

 

 

I would use!

[-Devoted12-]

I would only support this if it was optional. Anyways, it most likely won't be happening for a long time if it were to be passed. The techies are already swamped, so these will be the least of the priorities I would assume. :?

 

 

 

Anyways, I never liked forums with the preview, it just annoys me, yet a lot of people like it. I wouldn't be against it, but I would like it to be optional.

[InkofDeath]

Anyways, I never liked forums with the preview, it just annoys me, yet a lot of people like it. I wouldn't be against it, but I would like it to be optional.

 

Or you can have a 3-6 second default time before the balloon pops up, though that is a bit long.

 

 

 

Also how did it annoy you? you have to hover over the link, and then it would present the preview?

[-Devoted12-]

Anyways, I never liked forums with the preview, it just annoys me, yet a lot of people like it. I wouldn't be against it, but I would like it to be optional.

 

Or you can have a 3-6 second default time before the balloon pops up, though that is a bit long.

 

 

 

Also how did it annoy you? you have to hover over the link, and then it would present the preview?

 

 

 

I am not a big fan on pop up things. I would rather just click the topic and read the thing. I can usually tell what types of threads I wish to read from the title, so it isn't necessary for me to have a preview. It seems to me that the previews always just got in my way and every time I touched a link, something would pop up.

 

 

 

It is just one of those pet peeves of mine, this and sub-forums. :lol:

[Barihawk]

The thing is that nothing would be different. We already get the balloon now when we hover over a topic telling us what date and time it was posted. Try it. That's not so intrusive.

[The Observer]

There can maybe be a toggle on/off option in your UCP. This could be for people who either don't want it or for people with dial-up connections.

[dsavi]

^That's been suggested, about 3 or so times.

[Barihawk]

There can maybe be a toggle on/off option in your UCP. This could be for people who either don't want it or for people with dial-up connections.

 

 

 

Dial-up shouldn't even matter. Do this for me. Exit of this topic to the Forum and Updates thread. Then hover your mouse over this topic. See the little square popup? We already have the feature, it just needs to give a preview rather than the date.

[stratotanker]

There can maybe be a toggle on/off option in your UCP. This could be for people who either don't want it or for people with dial-up connections.

 

 

 

Dial-up shouldn't even matter. Do this for me. Exit of this topic to the Forum and Updates thread. Then hover your mouse over this topic. See the little square popup? We already have the feature, it just needs to give a preview rather than the date.

 

 

 

 

 

Something like that would be possible, but it would take some time to do. I have a vague idea how the SQL query in viewforum would have to be modified (and how to limit the size of the message preview), the hard part that I can't figure out is how to do the balloon-ing, probably could use the XHTML alt/title tag for it, I imagine. :?

 

 

 

Getting the thing to work on a user-by-user basis would be easy, though. I did something along the same lines with my Silverbar MOD's UCP Extension (it's a modification to phpBB3). Just a quick SQL query to create a boolean-style column and a template IF statement would do the trick. ;)

[Zargo_VI]

Something like that would be possible, but it would take some time to do. I have a vague idea how the SQL query in viewforum would have to be modified (and how to limit the size of the message preview), the hard part that I can't figure out is how to do the balloon-ing, probably could use the XHTML alt/title tag for it, I imagine. :?

 

 

 

Getting the thing to work on a user-by-user basis would be easy, though. I did something along the same lines with my Silverbar MOD's UCP Extension (it's a modification to phpBB3). Just a quick SQL query to create a boolean-style column and a template IF statement would do the trick. ;)

 

 

 

In other words: Yes it's possible :lol:

 

It would be a nice feature and I'd support it as well.

[stratotanker]

Zargo_VI[/color]":17nhqn23]In other words: Yes it's possible :lol:

 

It would be a nice feature and I'd support it as well.

 

 

 

Well, most things are possible, it's just whether or not it is practical how much you have to do in order to get it to work. ;)

 

 

 

[hide=<.<;;]It also depends on how lazy you're feeling. Trust me, a few of my MODs have been sitting for a while just because I want to kick back and play some video games. :lol:[/hide]

[Errdoth]

Zargo_VI[/color]":2lok6mlr]In other words: Yes it's possible :lol:

 

It would be a nice feature and I'd support it as well.

 

 

 

Well, most things are possible, it's just whether or not it is practical how much you have to do in order to get it to work. ;)

 

 

 

 

Actually, it seems like it'd be very easy to implement. One extra query in viewforum.php, substr to get it down to a desirable length, toss it in the template variables array, then use something like THIS to display it.

 

(And if you wanna make it toggleable, that's only one more column in the users table and a bit more code)

 

Anyway, I definitely support this.

[stratotanker]

If anything, you don't want an extra query. That'd most likely mean doing a query in a loop, which is very bad. :ohnoes:

 

 

 

If anything, a LEFT JOIN to the posts table on (topics table) topic_first_post_id to (posts table) post_id ought to get the data needed, then just a UTF8-aware substring to limit the message to 100 chars maximum for the preview, and a template variable, and it's all set.

 

 

 

Dunno how much this would slow down viewforum.php though. #-o

[Phil]

I remember it being suggested ages ago but was decided against. I like the feature on other forums I use, so I'm all for it.

[darkblade986]

For those who are confused, I believe the true term for what is being suggested is called a "ToolTip." Basically, this is the little white box with some text in it that appears for a few seconds when it hovers over a link. Examples of them can be seen if you hover over one of the smilies in the Post a Reply window or hovering over the Post a Reply button on the forums.

 

 

 

Given, that one only appears for about a second, but I'm pretty sure it's possible to extend the time that it will remain (to either a few seconds or until the mouse moves again) so that you can read it. I would recommend restricting it to like 200 characters (or 255, to keep it even with binary restrictions) so that it doesn't flood over.

[InkofDeath]

A better example Darkblade is just hover over any topic link in the topic area of any forum, and the posted date will come up.

 

 

 

That itself would be where the preview would be, and how it would look, just add some more words to it, and a better layout inside of it.

[stratotanker]

Given, that one only appears for about a second, but I'm pretty sure it's possible to extend the time that it will remain (to either a few seconds or until the mouse moves again) so that you can read it. I would recommend restricting it to like 200 characters (or 255, to keep it even with binary restrictions) so that it doesn't flood over.

 

 

 

Character amount restriction is easily done, but not as easy if you don't want to break the BBcodes stuff.

 

 

 

If you wanted to change the amount of time it appears, you'd have to do a javascript imitation. Unless you screw with the browser itself, no-go for changing time duration, last I'd heard.

 

 

 

Also, no need to fuss with binary restrictions. ;) Having it at 256, 257, 258 won't cause things to go boom (IMHO), if you use a UTF-8 aware substr() function on the message to grab only so many characters. ;)

[InkofDeath]

Also, no need to fuss with binary restrictions. ;) Having it at 256, 257, 258 won't cause things to go boom (IMHO), if you use a UTF-8 aware substr() function on the message to grab only so many characters. ;)

 

How long has Tip.It had so many computer savvy users posting in here? I swear 8 months ago it was around 4-6 people with moderate knowledge, now it's like 14-20 I see everyday. :ohnoes:

 

 

 

But yea, limiting it to only 100 would be better:

 

 

 

This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words

 

 

 

That's only 100 characters and it takes up a lot of space.

[stratotanker]

Also, no need to fuss with binary restrictions. ;) Having it at 256, 257, 258 won't cause things to go boom (IMHO), if you use a UTF-8 aware substr() function on the message to grab only so many characters. ;)

 

How long has Tip.It had so many computer savvy users posting in here? I swear 8 months ago it was around 4-6 people with moderate knowledge, now it's like 14-20 I see everyday. :ohnoes:

 

 

 

But yea, limiting it to only 100 would be better:

 

 

 

This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words This is 300 words

 

 

 

That's only 100 characters and it takes up a lot of space.

 

 

 

Might want to only do 50 then.

 

 

 

And, I'm a MOD Author. It comes to me naturally. :lol: With as good of phpBB backend knowledge that I have, why not help? :P